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Fictional TV news anchor Ron Burgundy has gone from being “kind of a big deal” to a full-blown meme, thanks to a multi-platform marketing campaign from Paramount Pictures.ahead of the Dec. 20 opening of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.

It’s something that would doubtlessly please the self-aggrandizing, dim-witted San Diego anchorman played for laughs by Will Ferrell — if only he knew what it meant.

In the sequel, San Diego’s top-rated Channel 4 news team, helmed by anchorman Burgundy whose signature sign-off urges viewers to “stay classy,” takes on the challenge of the 24-hour news revolution in 1980s New York.

TV news has long been a popular source of humour, from Saturday Night Live and Murphy Brown to The Simpsons, SCTV and This Hour has 22 Minutes. But this is clearly Burgundy’s moment.

Famous for having an opinion about everything with no real knowledge about much of anything, the anchorman in the polyester suit with the great hair and a fondness for the ladies was created by Ferrell and writing partner Adam McKay with Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy in 2004.

“Does mankind really need another book dumped onto the giant garbage heap of books already out there?” Burgundy wonders at the start of the tongue-in-cheek tome.

He then shares his secrets for living through a prison riot, hair care and breaking horses the Burgundy way. He’s not too big on Canada, though. Our entire nation bores Burgundy to tears, according to Let Me Off at the Top!

“I’ve done news stories in Canada. I don’t like to go there but sometimes duty calls,” he writes, later detailing how dull it was to interview Joni Mitchell, Margaret Atwood, Rich Little and Neil Young.

“If someone is introduced to me as Canadian I instinctively fortify myself for the torrent of soul crushing boredom to come plunging out of their mouth,” he all but sighs.

But Burgundy sure loves America and he’s already a hit in that primo news town, Washington, D.C., where Anchorman: The Exhibit opened Nov. 14 at the Newseum for a nine-month run.

Patty Rhule, senior manager, exhibit development at the Newseum, which partnered with Paramount on the collection, said items including the anchor desk and clothes from the 2004 movie are bringing crowds in. But once there, they get a lesson in the evolution of TV news coverage in the 1970s.

“The artifacts and costumes and props are fun and a really great way to tell the story of an era of TV news,” said Rhule, pointing to the “huge changes” in the 1970s when anchors came out from behind their desks and female and multicultural reporters became part of news teams, all dressed in matching blazers.

Rhule said Ferrell was at the Newseum in 2012 for the premiere of his political satire, The Campaign. “He saw what the Newseum was all about and we followed up on that,” said Rhule.

“I think they’re doing a really effective job of using him in various (marketing) campaigns,” added Rhule of the multiple Anchorman alliances.

It has certainly paid off for Chrysler, which teamed with Paramount on a viral campaign featuring Burgundy in video spots for the new 2014 Dodge Durango SUV as well as a contest through Ferrell and McKay’s comedy website Funny or Die.

A Nov. 18 Chrysler media release reported since the tie-in campaign with the Anchorman 2 started in October, visits to the Durango website page are up nearly 80 per cent and “shopping” activities, such as find a dealer, have jumped by more than 100 per cent.

Meanwhile, Emerson College in Boston will change the name of one of its schools to Ron Burgundy School of Communication on Dec. 4 for a day to mark the arrival of the classy anchor on campus as he addresses the future media stars.

Burgundy “understands the power of media, as well as hairspray, firsthand,” Emerson president Lee Pelton told The Associated Press.

Seems the same thing goes for Ferrell and Paramount. It’s a classy way to market a movie.

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